Anguished author of fine fantasy

Waffles by Proxy

They were supposed to be waffles, but they just didn’t turn out that way…

My wife surprised me this morning in expressing a desire to have waffles for breakfast. Not so strange, you might think, but I make my batter from scratch using secret ingredients, gluten-free flour, and whipped egg whites. Still, no big deal but we are in the process of transitioning from a Paleo diet to a Keto diet, which precludes the use of such flour.

Addressing the look of shock on my face, my wife thought I had a recipe that would work and in fact, I used to have one, but I never really liked it and had lost said recipe. Feeling intrepid after my wife searched for 30 seconds for a keto-friendly recipe, I declared that I would figure it out.

Almond flour, coconut flour, some nicely whipped egg whites and several secret ingredients later-along with some fixing and fussing on the consistency- I felt I had a suitable batter. It was a disaster. The waffle iron rejected the product in the worst way possible- burnt, undercooked, and stuck to the surface.

Not to be thwarted, I declared that I would make pancakes out of the batter instead. Not so lucky there either I soon discovered, as the out side darkened quickly while leaving the inside moist and unsolidified, thus rendering it unflippable. I served it anyway, three each, with plenty of butter. It was passable but not desirable.

I can make muffins! I declared until realized that my wife and I and had gotten rid of our muffing tins a couple of years ago after going Paleo and also reading that using aluminum bake-ware is very very bad. But fortune smiled as my wife threw me a lifeline. Just days before she had received in the mail her order of New York Baking Co’s silicone baking cups, 24 stand-alone, pan-free and non-stick cupcake liners.

I filled them to 3/4, warmed the oven to 325 and placed baked them for 50 minutes. Perfection! My little wannabe waffles came out delicious. (True story!)